EU auditors court slams lacklustre EU soil protection efforts

The European Commission and EU member states are not being ambitious enough with their protections for EU soil, nearly 70% of which was found to be unhealthy, the European Court of Auditors said.

Read the original French article here.

The European Commission’s first-ever proposal to regulate the monitoring of protected soils, presented on 5 July, has already been met with fierce criticism.

After Green MEPs bemoaned a “watered-down” version of the initial proposal, it was now the turn of the EU’s financial watchdog to chime in, in a report published on Monday (10 July).

“In Europe, vast areas of soil are unhealthy. This should serve as a wake-up call for the EU to roll up its sleeves and bring our soils back to good health,” Eva Lindström, the European Court of Auditors’ member in charge of the report, said in a press release.

“The upcoming changes to EU rules are an opportunity for EU lawmakers to raise soil standards across Europe,” she continued.

The Commission’s proposal puts forward a ‘harmonised definition’ and a “monitoring framework” for soil using EU data, including from the Copernicus satellite.

However, contrary to the EU soil strategy presented in 2021, the law does not contain any binding protection measures.

Recent maps show that 60-70% of European soils are unhealthy, partly due to poor soil and manure management practices.

The costs associated with this degradation are estimated at more than €50 billion a year.

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Current measures do not go far enough

The Court of Auditors also said that the European Union has the financial and legislative tools to ensure sustainable soil management.

These include the EU Nitrate Directive, introduced to reduce nitrogen pollution from livestock manure, and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which rewards good practice – €85 billion has been invested in soil health between 2014 and 2020.

But these provisions do “not go far enough”, according to the financial institution.

The audit carried out in various member countries reveals that in France, for example, minimum soil protection “only applies to nitrate vulnerable zones”, even if this is among the conditions for receiving CAP aid. However, this condition is already included in the EU’s requirements for cross-compliance, which fall outside the scope of the CAP – an overlap, which according to the court of auditors, reduces the scope for action.

In France, for instance, “11% of arable land […] was left bare in 2017,” the auditors pointed out.

Overall, “the requirements EU countries place on soil hardly require any changes in farming practices and can only marginally improve soil health”, the Court also said.

But EU and member state policies are “insufficient” and have “limited impact”, it added.

Derogations are not the answer

Derogations granted to member states are another sticking point for the auditor.

It refers to increased pollution levels on farms that benefitted from derogations under the EU Nitrates Directive. The list of countries not complying with the directive is “very long”, the court added.

The same applies to the CAP rules.

“In France, we estimated that only around 35% of farms were required to apply the three greening practices (crop diversification, maintenance of permanent grassland, areas of ecological interest) during the 2017-2019 period”, the report also states.

However, the Court acknowledges that differences between member states and the lack of data available to the Commission make it impossible to establish relevant European averages for soil management and protection.

Monitoring, research and innovation

In a response published the day after the report was published, the Commission said it was behind “the very first European legislation on soil”.

The Commission also noted that the new CAP – which was not taken into account in the report – has since strengthened environmental conditions. “47.4% of the EU’s total UAA [utilised agricultural area] will be covered by supported commitments beneficial for soil management to improve soil health,” the EU executive said.

The Commission also points to the role of member states in implementing EU legislation.

Still, the Commission said it would “continue to monitor how [they] implement the Nitrates Directive” and “will also carefully evaluate future requests for derogations”.

Brussels is also counting on monitoring and data production, which are at the heart of its new proposal. This is to help research and innovation to find new treatment methods, increase soil fertilisation and reduce water and nutrient consumption.

The EU Parliament and the Council will debate the Commission’s text over the coming months with a view of committing to the EU target of having 75% healthy soils by 2030.

“We hope that our audit will add value in this context”, the Court of Auditors concluded.

Commission tables first EU soil law, slammed for 'lacking ambition'

The Commission’s new proposal for a soil monitoring law falls behind the initial ambition of giving soil a protected status similar to that of air or water, according to Green lawmakers and campaigners.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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